Maintaining a new paint job

[amitgill]

Hi everyone, this is my first post to this forum although I have been following Mike Phillip's posts for awhile now.

Anyways, my car had really bad sunfading, specifically on: the hood, roof, and trunk when i bought it a few years ago. Over time it was getting really bad so I decided to get it painted, at Maaco ( I understand it's not the most popular choice). I went with the single stage urethane with integrated clear coat.

I will be picking it up soon, and I wanted to know what would be the best way to upkeep the paint in terms of polish and wax.

The person at the shop told me to not polish only wax it.

Also, I've heard some of their shops leave lots of orange peel on the cars. So I was wondering what would be the best way in dealing with this?

Also, the roof, hood, and trunk was really bad so it the paint was completely stripped down.

The car is a 07 bmw 5 series, not sure if it makes a difference.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Hi everyone, this is my first post to this forum although I have been following Mike Phillip's posts for awhile now.

Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:

Anyways, my car had really bad sunfading, specifically on: the hood, roof, and trunk when i bought it a few years ago. Over time it was getting really bad so I decided to get it painted, at Maaco ( I understand it's not the most popular choice). I went with the single stage urethane with integrated clear coat.

I will be picking it up soon, and I wanted to know what would be the best way to upkeep the paint in terms of polish and wax.

The most important things will be to,

Wash and dry regularly and carefully so as not to instill swirls and scratches. I share a new video that goes over how to use The Careful Approach to Washing a Car. Watch this video for tips and techniques.

The person at the shop told me to not polish only wax it.

That's because it has an "integrated clear". My guess is what this means is like a Ceramiclear paint system, there's a portion of the paint that will migrate to the outside and form a quasi-clearcoat layer of paint or at least appearance of a clearcoat paint.

This portion of the paint job will be EXTREMELY THIN.

Thus is you polish it, that is use any abrasive compound or polish on it you will risk abrading this portion of the paint off and expose the single stage portion. Probably not a super bad thing as the single stage will polish out, or at least it should polish out. This isn't the same thing as breaking or burning through a true basecoat/clearcoat paint system where if you break or burn through the clear layer of paint the basecoat layer is DULL.

Also, I've heard some of their shops leave lots of orange peel on the cars. So I was wondering what would be the best way in dealing with this?

Back to the integrated clear, this will be too thin to safely wet sand and leave intact. Best bet is to learn to live with any amount of orange peel.

Also, the roof, hood, and trunk was really bad so it the paint was completely stripped down.

Won't affect what you do as long as they did a good job. The horizontal surfaces take the most beating so as with any car, especially any car that is a daily driver, parked outside and exposed to the sun and the elements, be sure to take extra care of these panels.

The car is a 07 bmw 5 series, not sure if it makes a difference.

Makes no difference... (sorry BMW fans), it's the paint you're working on... not the car...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

...


Questions...

Is the car a daily driver?

Is it parked outside all of the time, both at home and at work?

Do you live in areas of extreme sun or extreme wet weather?

 

[fightnews]

i would have went with the base coat clear coat, im going to get my hood and front bumper painted if i dont sell it, maybe ill just get the whole thing painted, i want a show car finish with lots of clear coat. im pretty close now i just have a problem with road rash, cant buff that out

 

[Setec Astronomy]

That's because it has an "integrated clear". My guess is what this means is like a Ceramiclear paint system, there's a portion of the paint that will migrate to the outside and form a quasi-clearcoat layer of paint or at least appearance of a clearcoat paint.

LOL, you're very generous, Mike, I would interpret that to be Maaco marketing doublespeak to make people feel good about opting for the cheaper single-stage option which Maaco has less risk in applying. I would guess it's just a standard single-stage urethane, which will be quite glossy, as I think you have on your truck.

 

[amitgill]

Thank you for the quick reply everyone! Would meguiars #07 be too abrasive to use after? Also I did ask one of them what the integrated clear technically is. They said some clear is mixed into the last coat of urethane. The car is my daily driver, it is parked outside at home but inside at school and work. I live in Northern California so there it varies typically but it does not get extremely hot. Thanks again for all the info

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Thank you for the quick reply everyone! Would meguiars #07 be too abrasive to use after?

That's considered to be a "non-abrasive" polish. Look, things may have changed, but when I was a kid the dish on Maaco was that the paint was good, the spraying was pretty good, and the prep was horrendous (masking, trim removal, etc). A single stage urethane is a pretty good paint, I wouldn't worry about any polish right now, so just pick a good wax or sealant, and use it often (after whatever waiting period they recommend; although it should be a catalyzed paint and really should be chemically stable now, but there may still be some solvent outgassing).

It's hard to find a bad "wax" these days, if you're a newbie, it's really hard to go wrong with a WOWA sealant like Opti-Seal, Ultima Paint Guard Plus, Blackfire Crystal Seal, or Wolfgang Deep Gloss Liquid Seal.

Also I did ask one of them what the integrated clear technically is. They said some clear is mixed into the last coat of urethane.

That would be a great answer, if you could do that and if they were putting more than one coat on, which I'm sure they are not. Here is part of a description from Eastwood about their single-stage urethanes: "single-stage urethanes are basically clear coat with color pigment added..." I think that's how Maaco gets away with suggesting they painted your car with "integrated clear coat".